Montserrat Caballe

Montserrat Caballe was born in Barcelona and studied singing at the Barcelona Conservatory, graduating with honors in 1954, at age 21. Her opera career began at the Opera House in Basel (Switzerland) and continued in Bremen. After gaining experience in Europe, in 1962, Caballe returned to Barcelona, and then went on a tour of Mexico. International fame came to her in 1965, when she performed the title role in Donizetti's opera Lucrezia Borgia. The performance took place at Carnegie Hall in New York, and Caballe's performance received a 25-minute standing ovation. Subsequently, the performance of Donizetti's music, along with the music of such opera composers as Verdi, Bellini and Rossini, became the singer's "calling card". Montserrat Caballe's operatic career reached its peak in the mid-1970s. With age, the singer's voice gradually began to fade, nevertheless, one of her most famous numbers still remains a rare opera singer duet with rock singer Freddie Mercury, the leader of Queen - in 1988 Caballe and Mercury performed the song " Barcelona ", dedicated to the hometown of Montserrat. The song became the anthem of the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. In 2003, Caballe also participated in the filming of a documentary about her work. Along with Montserrat, opera stars such as Placido Domingo, Giuseppe di Stefano, Luciano Pavarotti, Jose Carreras, Maria Callas and others appear in the film. Despite his age, Montserrat Caballe still sings in opera, sometimes performing as a duet with his daughter Montserrat Martí.